Water Softener Questions

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Hello,

I will be purchasing a Fleck 5600SXT 48,000 grain capacity water softener. However, before I order, I've got a few questions:

1)What place do you guys think is the best place to order from? I've been recommended qualitywatertreatment.com, ohiopurewater.com, and qualitywaterforless.com. They're all within the same amount of money, and they all seem to be pretty good.

2)I can use this for a bypass valve, there is no need for another one, correct? http://i.imgur.com/9vhiQnZ.jpg

3)This drain is ok for the drain and overflow lines, right? http://i.imgur.com/CSXWX3b.jpg

4)Since my valves are not threaded, and I don’t know how to solder, I can just use sharkbite fittings, right?

5)Is it very difficult to assemble and install the water softener?

6)I’d appreciate any tips you may have (what materials the lines should be made out of, precautions to take, stuff like that)!

Thank you guys SO much!
 

ditttohead

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PM sent.

The byass, I would recommend buyint the valve mounted bypass. Gate valves are not considered the most reliable design. If you had a high quality 3 valve (Apollo, nibco, etc) ball valve bypass, then I would not be concerned. Shark bites will work, but you are still going to have to solder out of the gate valves to get it to either threaded or a piece of pipe.

tru-gap-airgap-drain.jpg
The drain... anyone else want to comment on that? Not my preferred drain. Since an air gap is required. Not to sure about how well these work, someone posted what appeared to be a better design a while back.
 
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Thanks a ton for the info! Question, some guy on another forum gave me advice that appears to involve no soldering, and is definitely doable by me. How do you feel about this?

I saw the photo you have of the piping in the basement. Mine looked very similar when I started. What I did was cut that all out, so I just had two cut copper pipes hanging there. Then I got two gatorbite ball valves like these:

Shop GatorBITE 3/4" x 3/4" Removable Ball Valve at Lowes.com

Stuck one on each pipe. Then you'll have threaded ends on the softener side and gatorbite ends on the wall side. You can just go to Lowes then and buy PEX tubing and any elbows to join it all together.
 

ditttohead

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I like that idea. But with this little twist. Order the system with 3/4" MIP plumbing connectors, the 5600 and the 7000 have them available. And use the Falcon Flex by John guest fitting. Very simple and quick. Dont forget to consider code for your grounding. jg.jpg
 
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Yesssssssss thank you so much for vetting that idea! I can definitely do what you say. The MIP plumbing connectors...my options are 3/4" (or 1") noryl or stainless connectors with matching bypass valves. Would the MIP be the noryl, then?
 

ditttohead

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Correct, be sure they spec the system with the 18706-02 3/4" noryl MIP plumbing connector. It will make for a very simple installation.
 
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Thanks for the advice. Ok, so let me get this straight...i get the MIP plumbing connector, stick it in one side of whatever tube i use, and that side goes to the bypass valve, and the other side (non threaded) goes into the sharkbite connector, is this right? If i cant find any of that falcon flex tubing, should i use PEX? Or some other kind of tubing? Some guy on another forum suggested this:

You might be better off with 3/4 shark bite x 3/4 female iron pipe thread. This way you can screw on a 3/4 male adaptor PVC.
Thoughts?

Really, thanks a ton for helping me with this, you are a life saver!
 
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ditttohead

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Thanks for the advice. Ok, so let me get this straight...i get the MIP plumbing connector, stick it in one side of whatever tube i use, and that side goes to the bypass valve, and the other side (non threaded) goes into the sharkbite connector, is this right? If i cant find any of that falcon flex tubing, should i use PEX? Or some other kind of tubing? Some guy on another forum suggested this:

Thoughts?

Really, thanks a ton for helping me with this, you are a life saver!


The suggestion of a shark bite and the falcon flex seems kind of silly and redundant to just using the john guest falcon flex part. The shark bite is also a push to connect style fitting. Here is a link to the connector at a reasonable price.

http://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-...ble-water-connector-34-ptc-x-34-fip-x-18.aspx

I am not endorsing this company, just googled the part number and it came up.
 

Tom Sawyer

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That drain will probably work but it is not an approved receptor. Shark bites et.al. are never recommended for installing appliances. At least not recommended by me anyway.
 
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The suggestion of a shark bite and the falcon flex seems kind of silly and redundant to just using the john guest falcon flex part. The shark bite is also a push to connect style fitting. Here is a link to the connector at a reasonable price.

http://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-...ble-water-connector-34-ptc-x-34-fip-x-18.aspx

I am not endorsing this company, just googled the part number and it came up.

Wow, that's kind of amazing. I have to check the bypass valve to see what kind of connection it is, but if I could use that hose, it'd save me a ton of time! Hopefully the softened water won't damage the stainless steel.
 
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Can someone please help me understand this bypass valve we currently have installed, please?

Since I am not going to solder, and am going to do this:

I saw the photo you have of the piping in the basement. Mine looked very similar when I started. What I did was cut that all out, so I just had two cut copper pipes hanging there. Then I got two gatorbite ball valves like these:

Shop GatorBITE 3/4" x 3/4" Removable Ball Valve at Lowes.com

Stuck one on each pipe. Then you'll have threaded ends on the softener side and gatorbite ends on the wall side. You can just go to Lowes then and buy PEX tubing and any elbows to join it all together.

The left side is water incoming, and the right side is water outgoing? I'm just trying to be 100% sure before I do anything. I know this sounds extremely stupid so, uh, thanks for bearing with me. :p
 

Mikey

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To see which side is incoming, close the center (bypass) valve, and then slowly open each of the other two valves, one at a time. One of them will have water under pressure -- that is the supply side. The other will probably show a brief spurt as water drains from the distribution lines, then just dribble.

With no softener installed, the center valve should be open, the other two closed. With the softener installed, there are two states:

Service state -- center valve is closed, other two are open.
Bypass state -- center valve is open, other two are closed.
 
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Thank you mikey! How would this change if I did what I quoted above and just cut out the bypass, left the two pipes there, and used a bypass on the softener side?
 

Mikey

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It would be a lot easier to just leave everything in place, which would allow you to hook up the softener (with its own bypass), and completely isolate the softener and its bypass if necessary. Then just close the middle valve, leave the other two open, and use the softener's bypass alone until you have problems with it.
 
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